Page 84 of Between the Lies

Instead of replying, Cheryl straightened her spine, then dashed away a tear. ‘The inevitable, Robert. What always happens when a cop falls for the criminal.’

‘They caught him?’

A laugh burbled out of her. ‘No. As I said, he was a smooth criminal. And now here we are. I fear you’re making the same mistake I did.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘All I want to say is, don’t fall for a lie. And don’t make the same mistake I did. It’ll only lead to heartache.’

It all made so much sense now. Cheryl’s antagonism towards Nina and her constant warnings stemmed from something more than prejudice. ‘Thank you for telling me.’

‘If you tell Joshua about this, I will murder you. And for the record, I still believe Nina could kill.’

‘Come on, Cheryl.’

‘But’ – Cheryl shot Robert a glare – ‘she couldn’t have killedhim. That’s the only reason we didn’t get here earlier and arrest her. Now this is confidential. And I’m… telling you this because I’m not confident about Dickinson arresting the right perp. So I want you to listen carefully and for once in your damned life do as I say.’

When Robert didn’t agree, she raised her eyebrows, not to mock him but to urge him to answer. He nodded.

‘We traced a lad who works at the shop. Once I grilled him a little, he said Nina came in asking about the lockers.’

Robert opened his mouth to explain, but Cheryl cut him off.

‘No, don’t tell me why she was there. I don’t care. Anyway, Shah turned up later. Said he wanted to talk to Nina. Shah owned that place. Based on the destruction at the scene, there was a fight. But once again, given the lack of wounds on Shah – except for his brain matter being scattered over the ground – we believe he attacked Nina. During the altercation, he took her to the back alley behind the building. Don’t know why they were out there, but… he was shot there. No one heard anything, but someone saw the body and called it in. The officers found Nina huddled behind the bins, unconscious.

‘A search of the scene, including a thorough search of the bins, hasn’t led to any discovery of a firearm. Nina was in no state to toss the weapon. Besides, I just saw the autopsy. The bullet that hit him wasn’t fired from point-blank range. My theory is someone was waiting for him. They shot him and left.’

Someone? ‘That doesn’t add up.’ Robert shook his head. ‘Shah was our ultimate suspect.’

‘Nothing so far adds up, Robert.’ Cheryl laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘I hate to say this, and I hate to encourage this, but Dickinson wants Nina to stay put. And I know you’ll stick to her like her own shadow. And even if I’m angry at you, I don’t want to find your brains splattered on the ground, so take Nina and this time, hide. For fuck’s sake, please hide.’

That said, she stood up, patted his shoulder and disappeared down the corridor towards what Robert assumed was Nina’s room.

CHAPTERFORTY

Nina clutched the seat belt strapped across her chest. ‘What the hell is this place?’

‘What does it say on the board there?’

She didn’t care what it said on the board. ‘A fancy honeymoon location for couples who like spooky stories. The last time I checked, we were neither a couple, nor are we on holiday. Hell, we’re still in Glasgow’s city centre!’

Robert cut the car’s engine. ‘This is an inn. As in a place to rest our heads for the night. I’m not taking you back to the flat. And before you say it, I have your backpack and a set of clothes for both of us for a couple of days.’

Nina tilted her head. If they were married and he planned a secret break away and packed up her things for her, she’d have jumped him in the car, bandages be damned. But… ‘We’re in the middle of a case.’

‘Where you saw someone blow up our chief suspect’s head.’

She rolled her eyes. At least this time he believed it wasn’t her. ‘In case you forgot, I haven’t had a job for a while now. And neither have you.’

Robert stuck a thumb at himself. ‘Paid leave. And I know you want to stay in the area. They take cash. And they don’t ask questions. If someone is looking for you, chances are they’re staking out transport hubs and big hotels in the city centre.’

None of which were located here. Nina turned in her seat to stare at the view from the inn. Glasgow’s Necropolis lay sprawled on a hill. Unlike that cold reminder of the dead, the inn appeared cosy, the sort of place you could snuggle up with your loved ones by the fire. Nina sighed, remembering her stay at Dachaigh in the Highlands a few months ago. Robert was right. They needed to lie low, and after the ordeal she’d been through, who was she to refuse a free treat? ‘I’m not taking my foot off the investigation wagon.’

‘Never asked you to,’ Robert said, getting out of the car.

No, he hadn’t. In fact, he’d never asked her to stop pushing, stop trying to get answers. Why would Anne have held this man back? He had a heart, aye, but the man also had a smart head that would’ve served the police well.

Relationships were complicated and hard to understand. But the more she came to know Robert, the more she couldn’t understand how a man like him had met and fallen for a woman like Anne. It was none of her business, though. She had enough on her plate. Three of the four people who’d been at the crime scene that night were dead. And now they had someone entirely new involved in all this.

Things weren’t going well. Not by a long shot.

When Nina tried to reach for the bags, Robert steered her towards the inn’s entrance. ‘Check us in. We’re under Mr and Mrs MacLeod. Joshua MacLeod.’

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